Larger Than Life

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2013)

Pacific Rim takes inspiration from the elements of any material that involves giant creatures and robots. It shows a simple concept about piloted robots, Jaegers, fighting against sea aliens, Kaijus. This idea alone would already make a fantastic blockbuster. The surprise we get is it features more than just endless explosions. There are plenty of innovations to root for which it can almost be a new popular classic. The only less intriguing parts however are the clichés that are too known in many big sci-fi action movies. Despite of that, it kept the promise of being gigantically awesome. It's not completely groundbreaking, but it's still quite an experience.
Aside from the large scale battles, the film amazingly creates an innovating futuristic alternate universe. It tells the origins of the Kaijus and how the Jaegers work, shows what society and the media have become, and throw some satires of the genre. The exploration of the vision is so absorbing, it feels like you went to it as a trip. But what somewhat halts this from being larger than life is when it takes the generic elements of any typical blockbuster, like the hero's motivations, the main robot is somehow an underdog in one scene, there's an arrogant team member, sacrifices, and so on. It's hard to not notice them since they are the central points of the story. The intriguing stuff about the Jaegers and Kaijus still took over the experience. At least it embraces its own fantasy tastes without being "dark" and emo like today's blockbuster trend.
Charlie Hunnam's performance is fitting to a graphic novel based movie, which is kind of appropriate as his role. In the battle scenes, he gives genuine human emotions as he punches and fall. Idris Elba remarkably brings heart to the picture while being awesome at the same time. Rinko Kikuchi makes her character more than just a partner of Raleigh. Charlie Day and Burn Gorman delightfully serves more energy to the story, while Ron Perlman appears in a short screen time but satisfying enough.
Now the real highlight of the picture, the visuals are overall shiny and snazzy. The designs of the creatures and robots are palpably marvelous. As the special effects move these heavy giants, the action did something better than just blowing up stuff. Although explosions and loud noises are not actually flaws(It's about giant robots, c'mon!), but a real good set piece needs a decent and genuine fortitude. In the midst of the noises, you will always get the sense of danger to the Jaegers, mostly because there are human pilots beneath the ravaging machines. It effectively made those sequences electrifying and the monsters terrifying than you would expect.
Pacific Rim will have its own fans. It feels like a self-indulged blockbuster that people will end up loving. Besides, this film is said to be Guillermo del Toro's dream come true coming from his childhood. And seeing all that, there's plenty of things to explore and to be intrigued. If only the plot can break some points from the mainstream storytelling, it would have been less predictable and much extraordinary. But physically, it is extraordinary. It's both big and eye candy which is the snazziest merit you will see. Also in the action scenes where it's more into the thrills than the fireworks, because it's all about iron fists hitting on monsters' face. Again, the story may be familiar, but the setting and the action keeps everything looks fresh and amazing.